Facebook is closing nearly half of Oculus pop-ups in Best Buy stores

Facebook is shutting down 200 of its 500 Oculus VR pop-up stores from Best Buy locations around the country due, in large part, to underwhelming interest from the public. Per pop-up workers speaking to Business Insider, some of these kiosks would "go days without giving a single demonstration."

Oculus denied that reasoning, however. "We're making some seasonal changes and prioritizing demos at hundreds of Best Buy locations in larger markets," Oculus spokeswoman Andrea Schubert said while confirming the closures. "You can still request Rift demos at hundreds of Best Buy stores in the US and Canada."

Facebook began the marketing push last May when a select 48 Best Buys received the VR headsets for demo and sale. The company expanded the rollout to 500 stores in August. However, the public just wasn't that into it. "They didn't press on selling," an anonymous worker from Texas told BI. "Their main thing was to have us do demonstrations and get people talking about Oculus.

Andrew has lived in San Francisco since 1982 and has been writing clever things about technology since 2011. When not arguing the finer points of portable vaporizers and military defense systems with strangers on the internet, he enjoys tooling around his garden, knitting and binge watching anime.